


Secret Meeting

by fleurlb



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-06 04:29:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13403475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurlb/pseuds/fleurlb
Summary: From the prompt:  Or what if they're part of some kind of joint agreement talks between the Alliance and Saw's Partisans?





	Secret Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosecake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosecake/gifts).



Leia recognized Jyn at once, even in the cadet uniform. The straight shoulders, the jutting chin, the eyes that seemed like a single look would cut glass. Jyn was not a person whom anyone would forget. But even with the recognition, something in Leia stuttered, like when the datalink isn't fast enough to support a hologram.

Jyn filed past the parade stand, in the orderly line of cadets. Leia leaned forward, as if straining to hear something, but one sharp blink from Jyn sent her leaning nonchalantly back. The message was clear. When Jyn was able and ready to communicate, then they would. 

The rest of the ceremony was the same mindless show of force that Coruscant was all too used to hosting and Leia was relieved when she was able to return to her temporary quarters. The sun had set already and two of the four moons were shimmying their way up into the sky. 

Leia was about to scan her hand at the door to her suite when she felt a presence watching her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, homing in on the attention, keen and sharp but benevolent. Mostly. She smiled when she opened her eyes and walked away from the door as if she'd forgotten that she had somewhere else to be. 

She found the ventilation shaft seven paces away, tucked into a blindspot in the corridor's monitoring system. The two bottom screws were already undone and all she had to do was peel back the flimsy amalgam screen and slip into the dark and dusty space. She followed it, slithering on her belly in a most un-princess-like manner until she reached a vertical opening, a narrow ladder stretching up into the darkness.

Leia could hear the insistent soft clinking of someone climbing the ladder, so she followed, losing count of the rungs after forty. Her arms were just threatening to go on strike when she finally reached the top and heaved herself out onto the roof, where Jyn was already leaning on a comms tower, looking as relaxed and untaxed as a lord on a holiday. 

“You know there's a secret entrance into my chamber. One that doesn't involve a climb into the heavens,” said Leia, brushing a constellation of grey dust off her ceremonial robe. 

“Can't be that secret, if you and me both already know about it. Besides, I figured you'd be missing your exercise today.”

“Nice uniform, by the way. I didn't know you'd signed up.”

Jyn rolled her eyes. “It fell off a transport truck.”

“It did? Or its rightful owner did?”

“Alder-on, Alder-an,” replied Jyn with a smile and a shrug. She walked over to the edge of the building and sat down, her legs dangling off the edge. It was a dare that Leia was powerless to refuse, even though the brisk wind made her want to get off the roof as quickly as possible.

“Did Saw send you?” 

Jyn reached into her pocket and took out a small data unit. She handed it to Leia. 

“It's his latest list of demands, I guess you'd call it. His manifesto.” 

Jyn's face was neutral, but Leia could feel something.....a hesitation? A lack of faith? An opening? It was difficult to tell. 

“Bail is doing what he can, but there's a split in the Alliance. Not everyone approves of Saw's..” Leia paused, searching for the right word. “Methods. You can't go kicking over Dantari fire-ant nests, willy-nilly, if you want to accomplish real change in the Galaxy.”

“And you can't just sit back sipping champagne while the Empire swallowed entire star systems whole, digesting their resources and spitting out the rest.”

Leia caught the flare of anger and realized that she overstepped before she'd even properly started the dance. Whatever Jyn had been wavering about a minute earlier, she was back in fierce partisan mode. 

“You have to have faith that the Alliance is at work,” said Leia, her tone bland as she tried to take her own advice about fire-ants. 

“Perhaps if the Alliance wants faith, they need to preach their message a bit more clearly,” replied Jyn as she crossed her ams and looked away. 

Leia stood up. “Someone wiser than me once told me that hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it, you'll never make it through the night.”

“And someone wiser than me once told me that promises are like the wind, whistling in your ears and then gone without leaving a trace behind.”

Leia walked back to the open ventilation grate. “Well, if you ever change your mind, with or without Saw, you know where to find me.”

She paused, hoping for some kind of response, but when she looked back to the ledge, Jyn was already gone.


End file.
